This trip was one we had been looking forward to for many years - a trip to the High Country and to Canberra to see the Floriade.
It's probably also the last trip we'll take in our caravan.
26
September
Yelarbon was the first night's stop. It's a familiar place to us now and it's as pleasant as ever.
27
September
Moving on, but taking our time, we stopped at Narrabri and dropped into the Golf club free camp which provided a great area to park the van (no power or water but that wasn't an issue for us) and the club house which had a decent bar and a restaurant area where we enjoyed (hmmm - perhaps that is overstating it a little) a Chinese meal.
28
September
A short day's drive and we stopped at the Canowindra Showgrounds - only $20 for power and water etc and it was a lovely place to stay.
We took a walk into town to lovely pub where we enjoyed a couple of drinks before walking back.
The town had at least three pubs and a pleasant and friendly atmosphere.
29
September
Adelong Showgrounds was selected as our next stop and it was a free camp as well! Bonus :)
Water
and toilets were provided, but not power but again, that wasn't an issue for us.
We camped on the edge of the grounds themselves and the pic below shows you the view we had.
We took a walk into town, again a lovely and friendly place, and walked the High Street before selecting a pub for a couple of beers.
30 September
Arrived
at Kosciusko NP and found our spot in the trees. Power and water and a
beautiful spot.
The drive there saw us travelling through some beautiful country.
The High Country is famed for its huts - either old cattlemen huts or those (like this one) built to provide travellers with a safe place to stop in the event of bad weather.
We reached the National Park and set up in the spot reserved for us. It was a quiet place - not many visitors this time of year.
The view from our site is above.
We then took a drive into Jindabyne to find a pub showing the Grand Final. It was a great pub and it was an exciting and close game, but bloody Collingwood beat the Brisbane Lions. Ah well, they were the best team all year.
We drove home, ate dinner and watched some Bush TV - see below!
1 October
Time
for a walk but it’s very very windy. And cold.
So we drove
to Perisher and on to Mt Stillwell where we had a short walk to a lookout.
Note
that the village is called Stillwell -
hmmm
The
twisted snow gums were beautiful.
The
view. Yes, that’s snow. Brrrr
We drove back from there to get a coffee at Perisher but it was closed. The whole resort was closed! Ah well, we can always get a coffee at "home" which is what we did before taking an afternoon walk on the Waterfall Circuit next to where we were camped. Lovely walk but tiring.
2
October
More walking planned so we took a drive
to Thredbo, wandered around the three quarters closed township and then took a ski lift up Kosciusko
Bloody
windy day up there. We were warned that it was a 70kph wind that gusted to 90kph.
We drove back feeling good and dropped into the Jindabyne Brewery to pick up some sample beers to take home before we settled into camp for the evening where we had some visitors.
3 October
Our time camped out near Jindabyne up, we
drove to Canberra today, taking our time and arriving at just after 2pm. The wind made the trip less fun than it might have been but it was incident free.
Set up in the caravan park, ate some lunch and then took a walk to the Duxton pub for happy hour 😁
4
October
Tour
around old Parliament House. Interesting
It was a rainy
afternoon but we had a date for dinner with Liv and Dean
Liv and Dean took us for a drive
to Mt Ainslie where we checked out the night time view over the city.
5
October
Floriade today - it was well done but a bit disappointing compared to Toowoomba.
The Australian
Mint tour in the afternoon was more interesting, but not something I'd go out of my way to do again.
6
October
You can't go to Canberra without going to see the War Memorial and we went back at the end of the day for the close of day event - the Last Post etc. This was extremely well done.
7 October
Today we visited
the Australian National Museum. Disappointing. Very disappointing, but the cafe served a decent lunch.
Afterwards we took a drive
to Mt Ainslie to see the day time views over the city.
8
October
Our last full day in Canberra and we met up with Liv again and visited
Haig Park markets.
It was a pretty nice market that had more interesting food etc than crappy crystal and candle sellers.
We had breakfast there, seated on some logs provided for the purpose.
Later on we thought we'd take a drive to a “country pub” and googled our desire. This lead us to head off to one that sounded good but which turned out to be in the centre of Queanbeyan. A nice enough pub, and a nice drive, but hardly a country pub.
9
October
Left
Canberra in the cold and took a scenic route to Molong.
Beautiful
country but twisty roads with steep hills.
Stopped
at the Molong Showgrounds overnight. $20 for all services.
10
October
Bellata
Golf Club (about half an hour north of Narrabri) provides great camping (including power and water) for a
donation.
Drinks
in their bar were good too.
11
October
Apple
Maps took us down a few rough rocky roads on our way to Girraween National
Park.
Nice once we got here though.
11 October
We reached home after a really enjoyable trip and found the place alive with Jacaranda blossoms.
It's good to be home :)